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The Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY; also called Mekane Yesus Church) is a Christian denomination in Ethiopia, the third largest Lutheran denomination in the world, after the Church of Sweden and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. With the encouragement of the Lutheran and Presbyterian Missionary Societies in Ethiopia and the Lutheran World Federation, the Evangelical congregations in several parts of the country met on April 23 and 25, 1958 to deliberate on the draft constitution and establish the Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY). From these joint efforts the church was instituted as a national Church on January 21, 1959, taking its name from the first congregation in Addis Ababa, Mekane Yesus ("Place of Jesus").〔("Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY)" ), World Council of Churches website (accessed 2 June 2009)〕 EECMY has a motto of "Serving the Whole Person" which was developed in the 1970s. This 'holistic ministry' theme of the Church has helped her to carry out her ministry in evangelism and development work. One of the important voices of the EECMY and leading theologian of the church was Gudina Tumsa (1929–1979) who was general secretary for several years up until his arrest and murder at the hands of the communist government of Ethiopia in 1979. It is the second largest Lutheran church in the world, after the Church of Sweden. == History == The EECMY was founded by Northern European missionaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These missionaries concentrated their work in southern Ethiopia where the Orthodox Christian influence was less profound. The strategy of the missionaries and evangelists to implant a Protestant church in Ethiopia was one of development. At a time when Emperor Haile Selassie was looking to modernize and promote progress in the state, foreign and domestic missions were some of the most productive agents. In fact, Selassie wrote in his autobiography that he only “permitted missions because of their efforts in the field of education and health care”.〔(Oeyvind. Revolution and Religion in Ethiopia: Growth and Persecution of the Mekane Yesus Church, 1974-85. 2nd ed. Oxford: James Currey, 2000. Print. )〕 It was through development that the evangelical church was able to first establish a presence in the 19th and 20th centuries. In fact, as more people in power in the Orthodox Church began to question the validity of foreign missions in Ethiopian society, and as the identification of the Orthodox Church and the Amharic language as unifying forces within Ethiopia began to grow, many of the people who held high administrative positions owed their education to the mission schools, and were thus reluctant to pass any legislation against them.〔 Thus, while many sociological and religious forces weighed against the Evangelical church and its missions in Ethiopia, the fact that it was effective as an agent of development aided its survival through its burgeoning years. Of course, the Orthodox Church was still favored in the eyes of most as the true Ethiopian religion, as shown in the Imperial Decree on Missions in 1944, which stated that the missions could not engage in religious activities in “Ethiopian Church areas”; however, the decree allowed considerable freedom for missionaries, most of whom were still foreign.〔 The EECMY church was beginning to gain some legitimacy in the eyes of at least a few, but was still seen as a spawn of foreign, colonial activity. This was made evident when the Mekane Yesus church became “legally registered” on February 13, 1969,〔 although it had been functioning as an independent entity since 1959.〔 In assigning an official name to the Lutheran offshoot, semantics became a key point of contention. The patriarch of the EOC at the time was largely opposed to the word “Ethiopian” being attached to the church’s name, as he claimed it was nothing but an organization, “inspired and led from abroad”.〔 He was also against it being officially registered as a church, claiming that it was merely an organization. After much debate however, the name was established as the “Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus in Ethiopia” (ECMY). It was changed to its current title “Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus (EECMY) in 1978.〔()〕 The Patriarch’s perspective represents a general sentiment especially present among orthodox followers that the Mekane Yesus church was not truly a native church. While the Orthodox Church had a long history in Ethiopia and had shaped much of the culture of the center, there were still large pockets of cultures unaffected by the church, especially in the peripheral regions where the EECMY experienced most of its growth, such as the south and the west.〔 One of the prominent early Ethiopian evangelists, Onesimos Nesib was crucial in this spread. He was active in his work in the spreading of the gospel to the marginal regions of the country that were both hard to reach and restricted by the government, and he also was the first person to translate the entire Protestant Bible into the language of the Oromo, the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia.〔()〕 This in itself was a huge step for the EECMY.〔 Because of Nesib’s work, the ECMY was able to gain a large constituency outside the Orthodox centers, specifically among the Oromo. The Orthodox Church has always represented the greatest institutional obstacle for the growth of the EECMY, when not actively, then by its mere presence and dominance in the public sphere. However, the EECMY has seen opposition from Muslims as well, although the EECMY has been constantly attended by suspicion and prejudice by members of the Orthodox Church.〔 The particularly malicious bent taken towards Evangelical churches during the Derg's socialist revolution of the 1970s, which manifested itself in attacks on EECMY churches by means of arson, arrests, and forced closings, exemplified this place in society. Additionally, the labels of outsider, colonist, enemy, and stranger were all stigmas with which the EECMY lived in the decades leading up to the fighting.〔 The persecution of the church was evident before the socialist revolution, and was only augmented during the war.〔 As a response to this, the church – now left largely to itself by many foreign missionaries who were evacuated for safety’s sake – began to develop a rugged theology responding to its suffering, with phrases such as “God is with us” and “Hitherto the Lord has helped us” emphasized in the church’s conferences of the time.〔 One of the EECMY pastors who emerged as a political and religious leader in this trying time was Gudina Tumsa, who has been called “the Dietrich Bonhoeffer of Africa” in the years following his martyrdom in 1979.〔 The Reformed section of the denomination was founded by the United Presbyterian Church in 1869. Dr. Thomas Lambie a missionary of the United Presbyterian Church begun work in the western part of the country. During the Italian occupation missionaries were forced to leave, but Bethel Evangelical Church was founded with native believers. In become an independent Church in 1947. After World War II BEC experienced rapid growth. In 1974 it become part of the Ethiopian Evangelical church Mekare Yesus, and now it has more than 1,000 000 members. Former BEC Presbyteries and Synods retainn their names. In western Synod of Gambella more than 60% of the population is member of the Bethel Evangelical church.〔http://books.google.hu/books?id=edhZ_g-RvyMC&pg=PA152&lpg=PA152&dq=reformed+church+in+ethiopia&source=bl&ots=7OuMV6kj0O&sig=zdI7bTrKyWhW7WKerJ1aAKZpoao&hl=hu&sa=X&ei=1p8LU_6aNMXnywPQm4GwAw&ved=0CGAQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=reformed%20church%20in%20ethiopia&f=false〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ethiopian Evangelical Church Mekane Yesus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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